Rimini Porto Sicuro (Rimini Safe Harbor) was an event organized by the City of Rimini — thanks to the initiative of Deputy Mayor Gloria Lisi — in partnership with Associazione Arcobaleno. Held on Thursday, June 20, 2019, the program unfolded from 6:00 PM until late into the night, bringing together a wide range of performances by prominent Italian artists. The event marked World Refugee Day, an annual occasion established by the United Nations to recognize the struggles and resilience of people forced to flee their homes.
That evening, Rimini’s port became a stage for six hours of live music, dance, and spoken word. The setting was no coincidence: the harbor is deeply tied to the city’s identity — a place of departure, arrival, and passage. Along the water, dancers from Movimento Centrale moved through the crowd. On stage, a lineup of major voices in Italian music took turns performing: Modena City Ramblers, Pierpaolo Capovilla, I Racconti delle Nebbie (Paolo Benvegnù, Nicholas Ciuferri, and Nicola Cappelletti), O Zulù from 99 Posse, Punkreas, Giulio Casale, Cesare Malfatti, and Marlene Kuntz.
Ayzoh! was there with its photography team — Giulia Zhang, Elisa Amati, Dorin Mihai, and Claudio Maria Lerario — tasked with documenting the event. Their 163 photographs offer a visual account of what took place, capturing not only the performances but also the people who came, listened, spoke, and stood still.
The night’s atmosphere shifted when the words of Anglo-Eritrean poet Warsan Shire echoed through the sound system — verses that cut through prejudice and pierce the distance between perception and experience. Her stories confront the gap between what refugees live and how they are often portrayed: not as people surviving war, violence, and forced displacement, but as opportunists exploiting hospitality.
Statistics were shared without softening the reality. More than 70 million people are currently displaced worldwide — the highest number in modern history. Over 25 million of them are officially classified as refugees, and more than half are children, according to UNHCR. They are escaping war, military occupations, armed groups, and forms of violence that are often left unspoken. Their journeys are marked by abuse, exploitation, and trauma — not choice.
World Refugee Day exists to remind us that behind the numbers are people — with names, memories, and futures on hold. The day was established by the UN General Assembly in Resolution 55/76 on December 4, 2000, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the 1951 Refugee Convention. Since then, June 20 has been recognized globally as a time to reflect and to act, with events ranging from concerts and film screenings to public discussions and educational programs.
In Rimini, on that June evening in 2019, the port became more than a location. It became a bridge — built not with slogans, but with presence.
